Bonolo Kavula explores the language of printmaking beyond its traditional confines through her use of thread and punched Shweshwe fabric as an exercise of abstraction. Combining print, design, painting and sculpture, she creates works which are both dynamic and restrained in composition, using the repetition of tiny fabric cut-outs, tenuously connected by individual threads, she recreates the canvas with new, more intricate planes. Although the work is formalist in nature, the materials speak back to ideas of colonialism, family and shared histories. The use of Shweshwe fabric is deeply rooted in Kavula’s own memory of her family, as well as in Southern Africa’s wider colonial memory. The process is that of excessive repetition, each dot with its own landscape of minutiae, telling of the meditative action of labour, and of the creation of new meaning through deconstruction and transformation. 

Kavula obtained a BA(FA) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town in 2014, majoring in Printmaking. Kavula received the 2014 Katrine Harries Print Cabinet Award at the University of Cape Town and she was a founding member of the Cape Town based artist collective, iQhiya. In 2021, Kavula was the winner of the enagaural Norval Sovereign African Art Prize and in 2022 presented her first solo museum exhibition titled Lewatle at the Norval Foundation, in Cape Town, South Africa, as well as a solo exhibition, Soft Landing, at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa. 

Solo presentations include: Art Brussels (Main Section) (SMAC Gallery), Brussels, Belgium in 2024; Moya as part of the Generations Section at Investec Cape Town Art Fair (SMAC Gallery), Cape Town, South Africa in 2024; Lebala as part of the Statement Section at Art Basel (SMAC Gallery) in Basel, Switzerland in 2023; a re kopane ko thabeng as part of the Positions Sector at Art Basel Miami Beach (SMAC Gallery) in Miami, USA and sewedi sewedi at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa, both in 2021. Most recently her work was included in Africa Supernova: The collection of Carla & Pieter Schulting, presented at Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort, the Netherlands which was accompanied by a publication with the same title. 

Selected group exhibitions include: Motherhood: Paradox and Duality, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa upcoming in 2025; Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (2024). Inner Landscapes, Bloom Galerie, Geneva, Switzerland; Subverted Realities, Bode Projects, Berlin, Germany; Within the Fold, SMAC Gallery, Johannesburg; Stellenbosch, South Africa; MiArt (SMAC Gallery), Fiera Milano City, Milan, Italy; Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town, South Africa and The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize Finalists Exhibition, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa (2022); Weekend Special, Cape Town Art Weekend, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; Opening Exhibition, FNB Art Joburg, SMAC Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa. Investec Cape Town Art Fair (SMAC Gallery), Digital Event and The Armory Show (SMAC Gallery), Online (2021); Speculative Enquiry #1: On Abstraction, at the Michaelis Galleries in Cape Town (2019); The Main Complaint, curated by Michaela Limberis at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) (2018). 

Her works are included in the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) Collection in Miami, USA; the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, USA; and the Iziko South African National Gallery Collection in Cape Town, South Africa. In late 2023, Kavula participated in an artist-inresidence programme at Fondation CAB, in Brussels, Belgium.